A joint media project of the global news agency Inter Press Service (IPS) and the lay Buddhist network Soka Gakkai International (SGI) aimed to promote a vision of global citizenship which has the potentiality to confront the global challenges calling for global solutions, by providing in-depth news and analyses from around the world.

News & Analysis

BERLIN (IDN) - A man raped a nine-year old girl who was on her way to school and infected her with HIV. The Zimbabwean police initially arrested the attacker, but then released him in secret. The reason: he paid bribe.

This case is by no means an exception The police and private sector have regularly been rated as highly corrupt, says Transparency International in a report entitled People and Corruption: Africa Survey 2015, adding: “we hear stories like this every day . . . In many countries you can pay off police officers to ignore any crime, however horrific and devastating – it’s just a matter of price.”

In fact, says the report, bribery affects more than one-in-five Africans. “Shockingly, we estimate that nearly 75 million people have paid a bribe in the past year – some of these to escape punishment by the police or courts, but many also forced to pay to get access to the basic services that they desperately need.” [P29] ARABIC | GERMAN | HINDI | JAPANESE TEXT VERSIONPDF | NORWEGIAN | PERSIAN | SPANISH | SWEDISH

The Central American country of Costa Rica is a model state that embodies the concept of global citizenship by pursuing a culture of peace and aspiring to achieve complete carbon-neutrality.

By Fabíola Ortiz

SAN JOSE (IDN) - With less than five million inhabitants, Costa Rica became famous for abolishing its army in the late 1940’s, when its Central American neighbours were involved in armed conflicts. After becoming a model of peace in the region, the country now wants to be known as a laboratory for a deep de-carbonisation process of the world economy. [P28] GERMAN | JAPANESE TEXT VERSIONPDF

UNITED NATIONS (IDN) - Since its inception, the United Nations has highlighted people-centred development. This is echoed in the newly adopted Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which aim to leave no one behind. But how can this be achieved?

This question was posed at an event on November 10 to commemorate the fifth anniversary of the UN Academic Impact (UNAI) that focused on ‘The Next Generation of Global Citizens’. [P27] GERMAN | JAPANESE TEXT VERSIONPDF

NEW YORK (IDN) - The UN’s post-2015 development agenda, which includes 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), is desperately in need of funds for its successful implementation. The goals include an ambitious target: the elimination of hunger and poverty worldwide by 2030. [P26] GERMAN | JAPANESE TEXT VERSIONPDF

STOCKHOLM (IDN) - Megatrends such as internationalisation, globalisation, urbanisation and digitalisation have been celebrated for decades; but the master narrative of humanity has yet to earn its fame. Now is the time for “migitalisation” to stage the scene. GERMAN

NEW YORK (IDN) - Two landmark studies are contributing to fostering global citizenship, by pleading not only for gender equality as such but also stressing the crucial role women can play and are playing in resolving conflict, overcoming violence, countering terrorism and bringing about peace and security. [P24] GERMAN | JAPANESE TEXT VERSIONPDF | NORWEGIAN

NEW YORK (IDN) - The United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is keen that member countries make Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) an integral part of their national policies so as to ensure that these are achieved by 2030. In an interview with IDN, he also stressed the need for the civil society to play a critical role in pushing forward this new set of global targets. [P22] JAPANESE TEXT VERSIONPDF | PERSIAN

SUVA, Fiji (IDN) - Discussions about the concept of ‘Global Citizenship’ are gaining momentum in various international forums, but remain largely unexplored in the Pacific Islands.

According to Ron Israel, co-founder of The Global Citizens’ Initiative, Global Citizens think beyond communities based on shared group identities, and see themselves as part of a larger, emerging world community. [P21] GERMAN | JAPANESE TEXT VERSIONPDF | NORWEGIAN

Never before has a UN climate change conference drawn such worldwide attention as COP21 is doing since the beginning of the year. This is an incontrovertible evidence that climate change is bringing together people from around the world, fostering a kind of global citizenship that is unique.

By A.D. McKenzie

PARIS (IDN) - Tourists and locals walking along the River Seine, near the famed Musée d’Orsay, are currently able to charge their mobile phones at three unlikely installations: solar-powered street lamps. [P20] GERMAN | JAPANESE TEXT VERSIONPDF

UNITED NATIONS (IDN) - The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are all about “finishing the unfinished business” of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), says Amina Mohammed, special adviser to the UN Secretary- General Ban Ki-moon on post-2015 development planning.

The international community adopted a set of 17 new development goals with its 169 targets by 2030 during the Sustainable Development Summit at the United Nations headquarters September 25-27 in New York. Instead of eight MDGs that expire this year, the post-2015 agenda has gathered a higher number of objectives. [P19] JAPANESE TEXT VERSIONPDF

Why choose Fostering for Global Citizenship

This website is part of a joint media project of the global news agency Inter Press Service (IPS) and the lay Buddhist network Soka Gakkai International (SGI) aimed to promote a vision of global citizenship to confront the global challenges calling for global solutions, by providing in-depth news and analyses from around the world. >>>read more>>>

CAIRO (IDN) - One does need to think back half a century ago, to remember how much harmony and peaceful coexistence reigned in Arab countries between Muslims, Christians and Jewish. Nor does one need to recall how hundreds of Muslims gathered to protect Christians praying in their churches in Egypt during and after the 2011 popular upraising. Or how organised groups of Copts acted as a human shield to save Muslims praying in Cairo's Tahrir Square from extremists' attacks during the successive waves of popular protests.[P] PERSIAN (FARSI) | JAPANESE TEXT VERSIONPDF

UNITED NATIONS (IPS) - The future of religion in U.S. politics lies not with conservatives but rather with religious progressives, social scientists here are suggesting, with a faith-based movement potentially able to provide momentum to a new movement for social justice.

According to a new report from the Brookings Institute, a think tank here, the current religious social justice movement can be compared to the period of civil rights activism in the mid-20th century. [P] JAPANESE TEXT VERSIONPDF | SPANISH